Not Wanted On The Voyage - Characters

Characters

• Dr. Noah Noyes — The tyrannical patriarch who is also Yaweh's best friend and confidant. It is believed that he is the one that encouraged Yaweh to cause the flood and destroy the human race through his magic trick. Noah is unwavering in his faith and domination of his family, often ignoring empirical evidence in favor of deeming something a "miracle". He loses his humanity completely over the course of the novel and his only aim is to obey the edict of Yahweh.
• Mrs. Noyes — The gin drinking, piano-playing, subservient wife of Noah. As the book progresses she becomes more rebellious towards Noah's decrees. Mrs. Noyes has a strong affinity with animals, especially her cat, Mottyl but also with her sheep, Crowe and others. She even goes into a bear's cage to comfort it during a thunderstorm. Over the course of the novel she ceases to believe in prayer to Yahweh, preferring that the creatures of the Earth pray to each other and to the sky and the water.
• Yaweh — Old and irritable, Yaweh is angered and depressed at the state of humanity and seeks out Noah for hospitality. His depression results in the destruction of the world and Yaweh's own acceptance of death.
• Michael Archangelis - An Angel and Yaweh's body guard. He is Lucy's brother and ultimately her nemesis. He does not feel she has been satisfactorily defeated since she chose to leave heaven rather than being forced out.
• Japeth Noyes — The Noyes' youngest son. Sex deprived and stained blue from a traumatizing encounter with outcast ruffians while on his journey to the City, Japeth turns to violence as a way of overcoming his experience. There are suggestions that he was once a loving and trusting person but he has since become a symbol of violent death in the minds of those below deck.
• Ham Noyes — The Noyes' middle son, intellectual and enthusiastic about nature and science, he is unlike the rest of the Noyes family.
• Shem Noyes — The Noyes' eldest son, also known as the Ox, for his physical strength and dearth of thought.
• Hannah — The pregnant wife of Shem, who finds favor with both Noah and Yaweh due to her willingness to serve. Hannah is perceived as cold by the rest of the family. In the end, it is revealed that Noah was the one who got her pregnant, rather than Shem.
• Lucy — The seven foot tall geisha who mysteriously appears in the forest and became Ham's wife. She is secretly a male, fallen angel who disguised himself as a woman in order to save himself from the flood. Unlike traditional stories of Lucifer's fall, Lucy is said to have fallen for simply asking, "why?" She is the instigator of a similar rebellion on board the ship.
• Emma — The young and reluctant wife of Japeth. Emma did not want to be his wife but had no choice in the matter. She and Mrs. Noyes had their differences but become allies in the end.
• Lotte — Emma's sister, an "ape-child." Has a "mental disability."
• Mottyl — Mrs. Noyes' loving blind calico cat, who was unfortunately the subject of many of Doctor Noyes' experiments. Mottyl undergoes an impressive degree of suffering in the novel. She is in heat at the beginning, gets pregnant and is thereby forced to raise her babies aboard ship where food is scarce, conditions are cramped and dirty and discovery would mean death since there are only supposed to be two cats aboard the ark. She learns to rely on her hearing and smell. Despite this she is a very compassionate animal. Her greatest fear is Dr. Noyes and later Japeth.
• Crowe — a female crow who is Mottyl's best friend and later savior.
• Sarah and Abraham — Yaweh's cats, who are chosen as the two cats to board the ark. Abraham was responsible for impregnating Mottyl.